[Effect of the x-ray irradiation of clonogenic HeLa cells on the genome mutation frequency in their progeny].

The X-ray irradiation of HeLa clonogenic cells brings about an increase in frequencies of genome mutations in the progenies of irradiated cells, from 0.207 +/- 0.004 to 0.248 +/- 0.004-0.319 +/- 0.003. This gain is due to hyperploid mutants, but the rates of hypoploid ones do not change. The HeLa cultures used were strongly karyotypically heterogenous and had a very high rate of spontaneous genome mutations.